http://www.ksla.com/Global/story.asp?S=4173304
Bayou Classic could remain in Houston
If the Superdome has not reopened by this time in 2006, the Bayou Classic will be returning to Reliant Stadium in Houston.
The contract signed between Grambling State, Southern and Houston officials is for two years, provided the game canNOT be played in New Orleans next season.
That is in contrast with plans for the Sugar Bowl, which would play its game at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge next year while still having all other activities in New Orleans.
That alternative had been considered for the Bayou Classic as well.
The president of the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau says having the Classic there meant ten-thousand hotel rooms being occupied on a weekend in which they would probably be empty.
Southern athletic director Greg LaFleur says that he knows of no deadline to make the decision but he expects it to be no later than May.
Superdome officials have said they don't expect the facility to be ready until November.
HOUSTON (AP)
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http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/...chome001.shtml
Bayou Classic simply not the same in its temporary Houston venue
By EMILY KERN
Advocate staff writer
HOUSTON -- Saturday's Bayou Classic football game provided fans of the Southern University Jaguars and the Grambling State University Tigers a chance to relax and enjoy themselves, nearly three months after Hurricane Katrina turned many of their lives upside down.
Instead of the usual New Orleans Superdome location, the city of Houston hosted the annual contest between Southern and Grambling, bringing about 53,000 fans to Reliant Stadium.
The Tigers won the game with a final score of 50-35.
Attendance was down from the almost 69,000 people who attended the 2004 game, and it was the second-lowest attendance in the history of the Bayou Classic. The lowest attendance, in 1984, was 51,752.
Fans tried to recreate the New Orleans atmosphere that makes the Bayou Classic so special, but rainy weather interfered with pre-game festivities.
Parking areas around the stadium remained mostly empty until nearly game time, when fans carrying umbrellas or covering their heads with newspaper or plastic bags tried to hurry through the various entrance gates.
Once under the covered area, Robert Tripps and Latitia Watts did their best to dry off 2-year-old Tajh Watts. The couple lost everything in their New Orleans East house and apartment and had to evacuate to Dallas after Katrina.
The game day experience just wasn't the same, they said.
What was missing?
"Atmosphere," Tripps said. "We party in New Orleans. We can't party here."
The couple attended the Battle of the Bands on Friday night, but Tripps said band members had to perform from the sidelines rather than on the field.
"That's the fun," he said.
Angel Scott, a New Orleans resident before Katrina, held up a sign during the game explaining exactly how she felt.
"Katrina moved us out in '2005.' In '2006,' the Bayou Classic is going home in the DOME!!!" her poster read.
Scott said her family members, too, had fled from Katrina, first to Utica, Miss., and then to Dallas, where she and her four young children are renting an apartment.
A Grambling fan, Scott said, "The game was good, but it ain't nothing like the Superdome. The crowd wasn't into the game until the second half."
"It ain't like home," she added.
Nettie Parquette, who lives in LaPlace, took a chartered bus to the game with others from her hometown and the nearby areas of Gramercy and Lutcher.
Instead of walking around the stadium and visiting booths, the group stayed inside the bus until it was nearly game time.
"We didn't do any tailgating whatsoever," said Parquette, who attended Southern from 1968 to 1971.
"All I really know is the way it's done in New Orleans," she said. "This is not New Orleans. It's quite different."
When she was a student, Parquette said, the game was still being played at either Southern or Grambling's home stadium.
"It got bigger and bigger," Parquette said, until the game eventually moved to the New Orleans Superdome.
"Maybe it's time for a change," she added.
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http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pb...511270351/1006
Article published Nov 27, 2005
Grambling wins second straight Bayou Classic
Nick Deriso
La. Gannett News Service
HOUSTON - Senior Grambling State quarterback Bruce Eugene threw six touchdown passes to lead the Tigers to a 50-35 win, their second consecutive against Southern at the Bayou Classic.
GSU (9-1 overall, 9-0 Southwestern Athletic Conference) hadn't beaten Southern on consecutive tries since the 1989-90 seasons under former coach Eddie Robinson. Southern finishes its season at 4-6, the first losing campaign ever for 13th-year head coach Pete Richardson.
"Even though they were 4-4, I knew they would be tough," said GSU coach Melvin Spears, now 2-0 against Southern.
The Bayou Classic was moved to Reliant Stadium in Houston after the Superdome, home to the last 30 playings of this game, was left unusable in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Eugene's 418 passing yards were part of an 657-yard offensive explosion that approached GSU's season-best 669 yards at Prairie View on Oct. 1.
Sophomore GSU receiver Clyde Edwards had three touchdowns and 161 yards on five receptions. Kuuan, last year's MVP, ran 21 times for 130 yards.
Still, Southern stayed within striking distance for much of the game, pulling to within eight points with 7:31 left - despite having trailed by as many as 22.
"It was," Richardson said, "a matter of pride for us." Grambling mistakes - including a Eugene interception and fumbles by Landry Carter and Ruben Mayes - kept Southern, and the Jaguars' fans, in the game. GSU scored 20 points in the third quarter but Southern answered with 14, including a stunning 85-yard punt return by senior James Vernon with 1:57 to go.
"We needed one drive to finish this off," said Spears.
Eugene pressed Spears to let him take over the playcalling. It would be the final scoring drive in this evening of offensive fireworks.
"I felt it was my responsibility," said Eugene.
Mayes redeemed that earlier miscue by finishing the 12-play drive with a 3-yard touchdown reception from Eugene. Four minutes remained in the game, but it was already over.
"It goes back to missed opportunities," said Southern quarterback Joseph Lewis, who threw for 301 yards and two touchdowns but was intercepted three times.
Southern's running game was particularly anemic, picking up just 1 yard in the first period on the way to 38 total on the night.
Grambling never trailed in the game, which was broadcast nationally for the fifteenth season on NBC.
But even in the game's earliest moments, there was drama.
Grambling won the toss, but following the recent trend, deferred. Southern would methodically drive to the GSU 29 before setting up for a kick. Only GSU defensive end Matt Duhe blocked the attempt, and Joshua Bester recovered.
Eugene capped the resulting 10-play, 79-yard drive with his first TD to Edwards.
Southern then turned the ball over downs at the GSU 30. Six plays later, Eugene rumbled in from the 11, his third rushing touchdown of the season.
Southern answered with a 67-yard pass from sophomore Joseph Lewis to James Vernon that narrowed GSU's lead to a single touchdown.
The tug-of-war continued as the second half opened. Edwards scored a dramatic 87-yard touchdown on the first Eugene pass of the second half only to see Southern assemble an 11-play, 75-yard scoring drive of its own.
So Eugene hit senior Moses Harris on a 36-yard touchdown pass four plays later.
A second interception by Dizer in the third quarter led to Eugene's third TD pass to Edwards, in a drive where Kuuan picked up 50 of total rushing yards on a single play.
Vernon, as if on cue, then juiced the crowd with the long punt return.
That to-and-fro meant this game would match the highest-scoring Bayou Classic ever - with a combined 85 points. Southern beat Grambling 44-41 two seasons ago.
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http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/...511270312/1002
GSU fans find familiarity in Bayou Classic game
November 27, 2005
Southern University defensive back Denard Duheart (left) reaches to stop Grambling State receiver Cornelius Mackey in the first quarter of the State Farm Bayou Classic at Reliant Stadium in Houston on Saturday. (Dave Einsel/AP)
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By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
HOUSTON -- The place changes, but most of the feelings remain the same.
That was the message from scores of Grambling State University fans as they arrived in a new city for a familiar game. The 32nd annual Bayou Classic matchup against Southern, moved from New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, was held at Houston's Reliant Stadium, where Bruce Eugene led GSU to a 50-35 victory over Southern on Saturday.
"The motivation for attending this event has no boundaries," said Kaycee Doyle of Monroe, a 1977 Grambling graduate who said he rarely misses a game.
"That is why you can take this event and put it anywhere in this country and it would be enormously successful. This event is larger than the lives we live because long after we are gone, it will still affect the lives of millions of people."
Fans were abuzz at the arrival of ESPN College GameDay on Saturday morning, a celebrated football preview show that has never broadcast from the site of an historically black college event.
NBC, with the sponsorship of State Farm, then aired the game nationally.
Though this is the 15th year of involvement for both NBC and State Farm, nearly everything else is different in this most unusual Bayou Classic. Even the accommodations.
Grambling actually had three host hotels -- the downtown Hyatt Regency, the Western Galleria and the J.W. Marriott.
The Marriott, where the GSU football team stayed, was the site for one of Friday's most anticipated events -- a reception called "The Legends Affair" that honored Grambling greats like Ernie "Big Cat" Ladd, Henry Dyer, Garland Boyette and Everson Walls, among others.
Aaron James, a GSU and New Orleans Jazz product, was also honored at the coach's luncheon earlier in the day.
But other events were spread out across Houston, a city that is far less centralized than New Orleans.
That wasn't the only difference.
"No French Quarter. No Bourbon Street. No Canal Street," said Mark Tizano of Lake Charles, a Louisiana-Lafayette alum whose wife went to Grambling.
"Everything unique about New Orleans will be missed by the majority of fans."
Still, that wasn't a problem for Tizano, who said his family isn't attracted to the nightlife. He's more of a football-focused fan, saying he chose to attend the Bayou Classic instead of his alma mater's game against Louisiana-Monroe today because "I would never miss the Bayou Classic. It's the game-of-all-games."
Several events were focused in the area around the stadium called Reliant Park. They included the Academic All-Star Challenge, which featured honor students from Louisiana and Texas, along with the traditional Battle of the Bands, the Greek show and a job fair with a special focus on Louisiana jobs.
That all led up to the Bayou Classic, the annual game between Louisiana's in-state Southwestern Athletic Conference rivals. Southern has caught fire of late, winning 14 of the last 20 meetings to lead the overall series 28-25.
But GSU is the reigning champion, after besting the Baton Rouge school by a score of 24-13 in 2004.
Tizano also noted the more reasonable rates in this temporary home for the Bayou Classic.
"Because of the ridiculously high-priced hotel rooms in New Orleans in the past ,we had become accustomed to traveling on the morning of the game," Tizano said. "This year, however, that changed. Houston hotels have decent rates. Because of that, we are spending a couple of nights."
A special section of the parking lot at Reliant Stadium was designated for tailgating Saturday with R&B singer Patti LaBelle performing after the game.
Even with that full slate, some fans longed for the comfort and familiarity that the Superdome always brought.
"The feeling away from New Orleans is slightly different," Doyle said. "The birthplace of this event is New Orleans, so when it's all said and done, it has to come back to the Big Easy. New Orleans and the state of Louisiana own this show -- enough said -- because there is no place like home."
This is a historical moment. The game between GSU and SU has NEVER been outside of Louisiana. I'm not trying to miss it! Plus, I don't need lodging, which makes it all good! 
I will, however drive my own vehicle to the game. Last year, I rode with my sister and her family (all SU-nites). When we won, they were ready to leave. I didn't get a chance to REALLY celebrate. 
re Bayou Classic
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